The Straight Line

Cartesian Coordinates
The plane is divided into four quadrants which stand by two perpendicular lines.

The horizontal line x1 0 x is called the x-axis while the vertical line y1 0 y is called the y-axis.
The point of intersection of the two lines is called the origin.
The distance from y-axis is called x-coordinate or abscissa while the distance from the x-axis is
called the y-coordinate or ordinate.
The two i.e. abscissa and ordinate when taken together give the coordinate of a point in the plane
denoted by  x, y  .
Length of a line joining two points
If A  x1 y1  and B  x2 , y2  are any two points.

Pythagoras Theorem
AB 2  AN 2  BN 2
  x2  x1    y2  y1 
2 2

Therefore,
AB   x2  x1    y2  y1 
2 2

Example
Find the length of the line joining the points A  1, 4  and B  2, 6 

Solution
AB 2   2   1    6  4   32  22  9  4  13
2 2

 AB  13  3.61

Exercise
Show that ABC is isosceles where A, B, C are the points  7,3 ,  4,1 and  3, 2 

The midpoint of the straight line joining two given points

Let M be the midpoint of the line joining A  x1 , y1  and B  x2 , y2  as shown below;
The x coordinate of M is equal to
1 1 1
x1   x2  x1   x1  x2  x1
2 2 2
1 1
 x1  x2
2 2
1
  x1  x2 
2
Similarly, the y-coordinate is given by
1 1
y1   y2  y1    y1  y2 
2 2
Therefore the coordinate of midpoint M are
1 1 
  x1  x2  ,  y1  y2  
2 2 

Example
Find the coordinates of the midpoint joining  1, 4  and  3, 2  .

Inclination and slope of a line

Inclination of the line L is the angle measured positively (anticlockwise) from the positive x-axis
to the line L.
The slope of the line L is the tangent of the angle of inclination. If m is the slope of L, then
m  tan 
Suppose that P1  x1 , y1  and P2  x2 , y2  are points on the line L.

Considering the right angled triangle PMP

1 2 we have,

y2  y1
m  tan  
x2  x1

Example
Find the slope and the angle of inclination  of the line passing through the points 10, 3 and
14, 7  .

Solution
y 7  3 4
m    1
x 14  10 4
  tan 1  1  1350

Parallel and perpendicular lines

If two lines L1 and L2 are parallel, then their slopes are equal.

Next, suppose L1 and L2 are perpendicular. Suppose the angle of inclination of L1 is 1 , then
m1  tan 1 .
Similarly, let the angle of inclination of L2 is  2 , then m2  tan  2 .
Let BM  a and AM  b . Then
a
m1  tan 1  .
b
Next, 3  180   2   2  180  3
b
Therefore, tan  2  tan 180  3    tan 3  
a
b 1 1
Thus M 2  tan  2    
a a M1
b
1
i.e. M 2   or M 2 M1  1
M1

Angle between Two Lines

Let L1 and L2 meet at angle  measured anticlockwise from L1 to L2 . Further, let the slope of
L1 be m1 and the slope of L2 be m2 .
Let 1 be the angle of inclination of L1 and  2 be the angle of inclination of L2 . Then
 2  1       2  1
Hence
tan  2  tan 1
tan  
1  tan  2 tan 1
But m1  tan 1 and m2  tan  2
m2  m1
 tan  
1  m2 m1

Example
2
The angle between two lines is 450. If the slope m1 of L1 is . Determine the slope of L2 .
3

Solution
tan 450  1
m  m1
1  2
1  m2 m1
 m2  2
1 3
1 2 m
3 2
1  2 m2  m2  2
3 3
5 1
  m2
3 3
 m2  5

Equation of a straight line

There are many form of an equation of a straight line.

a) Point-slope form
Suppose the point P  x1 , y1  is on the line L and the slope of L is m. Let P  x, y  be any
point on the line,
y  y1
m
x  x1
 y  y1  m  x  x1 

Example
1
Write the equation of a line passing through  4, 3 with slope
2

Solution
Let P  x, y  be any point on the line, equation is
y3 1

x4 2
 2  y  3  x  4  x  2 y  2  0

b) Two point form

Suppose P1  x1 , y1  and P2  x2 , y2  are points which lie on the line L.
y2  y1
Then m 
x2  x1
Using point slope form we get the equation of the line to be
y y
y  y1  m  x  x1   2 1  x  x1 
x2  x1
 y  y1 y2  y1
 
x  x1 x2  x1

Example
Determine the equation of the line passing through  2, 3 and  4, 2  .

Solution
Let P  x, y  be any point on the line, then
23 5
slope  
42 6
and
y3 5

x2 6
 6  y  3  5  x  2 
 6 y  5x  8  0

c) Slope-intercept form
Suppose the slope of a line L is m and y intercept is b

If b is the y-intercept, then the point  0,b  is on the line. Using the point-slope form, we get
y  y1  m  x  x1 
 y  b  m  x  0   mx
y  mx  c
 Example
Find the slope m and y intercept of the line 2 y  3 x  7

Solution
Make y the subject of the formula,
2 y  3x  7
 2 y  3x  7
3 7
y  x
2 2
3 7
Therefore slope   and y-intercept is .
2 2

d) Intercepts form
Suppose a is the x-intercept and b is the y-intercept of the line L. Then the points  a, 0  and
 0,b  lie on the line L.

Using the two point form, the equation of line L is

y0 b0 b
 
x  a 0  a a
y b
 
x  a a
ay  bx  ab
  ay  bx  ab
x y
   1.
a b

Example
Find the equation of a line whose x and y intercepts are 5 and 3 respectively.

Solution
x y
Equation  1
5 3
 3 x  5 y  15

Further Example
Determine the equation of the line passing through point  2, 3 and parallel to the line
passing through  4,1 and  2, 2  .

Solution
Slope of the 2nd line,
2 1 1
m 
2  4 6
1
Therefore slope of the 1st line is  , therefore the equation is
6
y3 1

x2 6
 6  y  3    x  2    x  2
 6 y  18   x  2
 x  6 y  16  0

Exercise
1. Find the equation of the line through the origin and perpendicular to the line 3x  4 y  2  0 .
2. Find the point of intersection of the lines 3x  2 y  10  0 and 4 y  6 x  7 .
3. If two lines L1 and L2 have equations 3x  2 y  5 and 4 x  5 y  1 , find the angle between
them.

General Equation of a Line

The general equation of a line is given as ax  by  c  0 , where a, b and c are arbitrary numbers
with the exception that a and b cannot be zero simultaneously. By making y the subject, we get
 a c
y x
b b
a c
Hence the slope is m  and y-intercept is .
b b

Distance from a point to a line

In geometry, the distance of a point from a line is the shortest distance between the point and the
line. In general we draw infinite number of lines from a point to a line in a plane.

The shortest distance of a point from a line is defined as the length of the perpendicular to the
line from the point.
Suppose we wish to find the distance from point A  x1 , y1  to line L with equation ax  by  c  0
We need to find the length of the perpendicular drawn from A to the line.
The x and y intercepts are  c a and  c b respectively.

Then area ABC is

1 1
Area  CB AM  CB d (i)
2 2
Also are of ABC is given by,
1
Area  x1  y2  y3   x2  y3  y1   x3  y1  y2 
2
1  c   c   c 
 x1  0        y1   0  y1  0 
2  b   a  b 
 1  c   c   c 
 x1  0        y1   0  y1  0 
2  b   a  b 
1 c c2 c 1 c c c2
 x1   y1  x1  y1 
2 b ab a 2 b a ab
1 c
 ax1  by1  c
2 ab
c
 ax1  by1  c (ii)
2 ab

But from (i)

Area ABC is
1
Area  CB d
2
1  c
2 2
  c
   0  0    d
2  a   b
1 c2 c2
  d
2 a 2 b2
c 1 1
  d
2 a 2 b2

  a 2  b2   d
c 1
 2 2
2 ab
c
 a 2  b2  d (iii)
2 ab
From (ii) and (iii),
a1 x1  by1  c  a 2  b 2  d
a1 x1  by1  c
d 
a 2  b2

Example
1. Find the distance of the points  2, 1 and 1,1 from the line 3 x  4 y  6 .

Solution
a) The distance of point  2, 1 from 3x  4 y  6  0 is given by
 3  2   4  1  6 4 4
d1   
32  42 5 5
b) The distance of the point 1,1 from 3x  4 y  6  0 is
3 1  4 1  6 1
d2  
3 4
2 2 5

2. Find the distance of the point  h, k  from the line x cos   y sin   p

Solution
The given equation can be written as, x cos   y sin   p  0
Therefore, a  cos  , b  sin  , c   p
h cos   k sin   p
d 
cos 2   sin 2 
 h cos   k sin   p
 h cos   k sin   p

Exercise
1. Show that the point 1,1 is equidistant from the lines 3 x  4 y  12 , 5 x  12 y  20  0 and
4x  3y  6
2. Find the distance between the parallel lines 5 x  3 y  6  0 and 5 x  3 y  6  0 . [Hint: Find
the distance from a point on one line to the other line]
The circle
Equation of a Circle
a) Centre at the origin
Suppose that a circle has the centre at the origin and radius r. Let P  x, y  be any point on
the circle;

ONP is right angled. Then by Pythagoras theorem,

x2  y 2  r 2 (1)
(i) is the equation of a circle of radius r with centre at the origin.

b) Centre not at the origin

 CNP is right-angled and by Pythagoras theorem,
 x  a   y  b  r2
2 2
(2)
Equation (2) gives equation of the circle, radius r, whose centre is at  a, b  .

Example
1. Find the equations of a circle with centre  4, 1 and radius 2.

Solution
Let P  x, y  bee any point on the circle, then equation of the circle is,

 x  4   y  1  22
2 2

Expanding the squares,

x 2  8 x  16  y 2  2 y  1  4
x 2  y 2  8 x  2 y  13  0

2. Find the radius and coordinate of the centre of the circle

2 x 2  2 y 2  8 x  5 y  10  0

Solution
We write the given equation in the form  x  a    y  b   r 2 i.e. complete squares of x
2 2

and y
2 x 2  2 y 2  8 x  5 y  10  0
 5
 x2  y 2  4 x  y5 0
2
Rearrange the terms,
5
x 2  4 x  y 2  y  5
2
Complete the squares,
2
5 5 25
x  4 x   2   y  y     5  4 
2 2 2

2 4 16
Factorizing
2 2

 x  2    y      
2 5 9 3
 4  16  4 
 5 3
Therefore the circle has centre at  2,   and radius r  .
 4 4
3. Find the equation of a circle which has diameter joining points  5, 1 and  3, 7  .

Solution
Centre of the circle = midpoint of the diameter
 5   3 1  7 
 ,   1,3
 2 2 

Radius is
 r 2  1  3   3  7 
2 2

 42   4
2

 16  16  32
 r  32  4 2
Hence equation of the circle is,

 x  1   y  3  
2
 4 2
2 2

 x 2  2 x  1  y 2  6 y  9  32
 x 2  y 2  2 x  6 y  22  0

General Equation
The general equation of a circle is,
x 2  y 2  Ax  By  C  0

Example
Determine the equation of a circle through three points  5,3 ,  6, 2  and  3, 1 .

(Exercise)

Tangent of a circle at the point of contact

Let P  x, y  be a point on the circle of radius r and centre C  a, b  .
The line L which touches the circle only at point P  x, y  is called the tangent of the circle at
point P  x, y  . Line L is perpendicular to the line segment CP (radius).

Example
Find the equation of the tangent at the point of contact  8, 3 of the circle whose equation is
x 2  y 2  6 x  4 y  12  0 .

Solution
Completing the squares,
x 2  y 2  6 x  4 y  12  0
 x 2  6 x  y 2  4 y  12
x2  6 x   3  y 2  4 y  22  12  9  4  25
2

 x  3   y  2   25
2

Therefore, the circle is centred at C  3, 2  .

Slope of the radius,
3  2 1
m 
83 5
Therefore slope of the tangent is m1  5
Let  x, y  be any point on the tangent,
y3
5
x 8
 y  3  5  x  8
 5 x  y  43  0

Tangent of a circle from external point

Let P1  x1 , y1  be an external point of the circle with centre C  a, b  and a radius r.

Clearly we have two tangents from the point P1  x1 , y1  . Also MCP1 and NCP1 are right
angled.

Example
Find the length of the tangents from the point  5, 7  to the circle x 2  y 2  4 x  6 y  9  0

Solution
By Pythagoras theorem,
t2  d 2  r2
Equation in standard form,
x2  y 2  4 x  6 y  9  0
Completing the squares,
x 2  4 x  y 2  6 y  9
 x2  4 x   2   y 2  6 y   3  9  4  9  4
2 2

 x  2   y  3  4  22
2 2

Therefore, the centre is  2,3 and the radius is r  2 .

The distance d from centre  2,3 to  5, 7  is
d 2   5  2    7  3  32  42
2 2

 9  16  25
but r  4
2

 t 2  d 2  r 2  25  4  21
t  21

Exercise
1. Find the equation of the circle with the following centres and radii;
a) Centre  3, 4  and radius 5.
  1 1 1
b) Centre   ,   radius 2
 4 3 2

2. Find the radii and the coordinates of centres of the following circles;
a) x 2  y 2  2 x  4 y  1  0
b) 2 x 2  2 y 2  x  y  0
c) 36 x 2  36 y 2  24 x  36 y  23  0

3. Find the equation(s) of the tangent(s) to the circle x 2  y 2  6 x  4 y  5  0 at the point where
it meets the x-axis.
4. Find the length of the tangents from given points to the following circles;
a) x 2  y 2  10 x  8 y  5  0 , point (5, 4)
b) x 2  y 2  4 x  8 y  5  0 , point (3, -2)